Search Engine Optimization News Blog

The most eagerly awaited highlight of this year’s SMX Advanced Conference in Seattle was yesterday’s Y and A with Googler Matt Cutts.

Matt has long been the spearhead for Google’s anti-spam campaign, and is the single most trusted authority when it comes to the search engine’s views on SEO tactics from linking to advertising and everything in between

In his Y and A session, Matt touched back on several familiar topics, and a few that made news recently and had sparked a bit of controversy.

Speaking of linkbait, Matt called it good, excepting as always deliberate or fraudulent manipulation on the part of the website owner to increase PageRank. This was good to hear, as the recent hoax perpetrated by Lyndon Antcliff and the subsequent uproar made many SEO’s worried that all linkbait was going to be frowned upon.

As far as widget bait, however, Matt warned against hiding links in a downloadable widget. Better to be completely honest, and state clearly in the surrounding text that downloading the widget will also come with a link back to your site. This avoids any appearance of deception, and ensures that the website owner is fully cognizant of the fact that they will be linking to you. Transparency of tactics, as always, makes it easier for Google to trust you!

On penalties instituted by Google, Matt was reticent, stating only that any problems with SERPs rankings can be rectified on the part of the webmaster by correcting tactics and removing suspicious material or links. As long as the site is configured to meet Google’s guidelines, the SERPs ranking should rise.

Paid links were touched on briefly, with Matt repeating Google’s commitment to following through on paid links reports and taking action if necessary. He stressed again that natural linking is the best way to build your website’s trust in the eyes of the search engine.

As far as the no-follow attribute, Google had Cutts take the opportunity of the SMX venue to announce the new NoFollow Google Help Center, and a video is available of the interview he gave to Mike McDonald. Matt touched on several points regarding the new information and the help it can offer to webmasters struggling to figure out how and what to no-follow on their site.

During Q and A with SMX attendees, someone popped the question of why Google and Wikipedia are bedmates, to which Cutts replied, “Regular users love it. Remember, you aren’t normal, SEOs! That said, Wikipedia is not always the answer.”

I agree with the latter part of that statement, but am not sure how I feel about being labeled ‘not normal’! Although that description does match quite a few contemporaries I could think of…

Matt Cutts and the Google web spam team are apparently on the ball, so white hat SEOs, be happy; black hatters, tremble! As Yahoo and Microsoft resume their constant battle, Google continues to think of ways to improve the web for site owner and consumer alike.